Palace: PH has ‘best testing policy’ in Asia, virus response deserves ‘very good grade’

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has proclaimed the Philippines as having the “best testing policy in the whole of Asia and probably in the whole world” and gave the government’s COVID-19 response “a very good grade” of 85%.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online briefing on Tuesday that the government deserves such rate because it was able to curb the millions of possible COVID-19 infections as forecast by experts after it placed areas of the country under community quarantine, keep the Philippines’ COVID-19 case fatality rate low, and prevent the health system from getting “overwhelmed.”

“All in all, I think we deserve a very good grade, I would give it a grade of 85 percent,” was Roque’s response when asked how he would rate the government’s response to the pandemic.

Asked then about the government’s strengths in its pandemic response, Roque lauded the Philippines’ COVID-19 testing capacity.

“We clearly have the best testing policy in the whole of Asia and probably in the whole world because we have exceeded three million (tests) and as a percentage of total population, lubos-lubusan na ‘yan sa sinasabi nilang 3 percent na dapat ma-test na population,” Roque said.

(We clearly have the best testing policy in the whole of Asia and probably in the whole world because we have exceeded three million tests and that exceeds what they said about testing 3 percent of the total population.)

“At patuloy pa po tayo, dadami pa po tayo and I think we will have the highest number of testing, one of the highest in the whole world. That’s clearly our biggest strength,” he went on.

(We will continue to increase our testing and I think we will have the highest number of testing, one of the highest in the world. That’s clearly our biggest strength.)

Roque, however, also admitted that the government still needs to “brush up” on its contact tracing efforts.

Roque added that the country likewise needs more isolation facilities if it proceeds with the plan to implement a no home quarantine policy.

As of Monday, the Philippines has recorded 265,888 infections nationwide, of which 53,754 remain active cases. It also reported 4,630 deaths and 207,504 recoveries as of September 14.

KGA